This invention relates to the art of buffing or finishing work. The words "buffing" and "finishing" are used in this application in the general sense including within their scope treatment of the work in which material is removed from the surface and coloring in which the work is endowed with a sheen without substantial removal of material. This invention has particular relationship to the treatment of objects which require buffing wheel assemblies of substantial length and it deals with ganged buffing wheel assemblies for buffing such objects. The individual buffing wheel which is ganged with other individual wheels to form a buffing wheel assembly will be referred to herein as a "buff section". Such an individual buffing wheel or buff section is described, together with a method of making it, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,805,530 to Paul E. Schaffner. The Schaffner buff sections are composed of a plurality of plies of buffing fabric layered on two drums across a gap between the drums. The layers are secured or pinched in the gap by a wire which is tightened about the bend in the layers. The layers are formed into an annulus by moving the drums towards each other axially and closing claws on a hub on the fabric radially inwardly of the wire. Schaffner's buff sections have a center plate which constitutes part of the hub. The current practice is to produce centerless buff sections. Centerless buff sections of one type usually, referred to as "standard", are secured by a ring of claws at the center. Centerless buff sections of another type, which are referred to as "light weight", are secured only by the wire at the center and usually sewn radially inwardly at the pinching wire to encase the wire.
A ganged buffing wheel assembly is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,365,742 to James R. Schaffner. A ganged buffing wheel assembly, typically, includes a drive shaft from whose outer surface a plurality of circumferentially spaced keys extend axially. The ganged buffing wheel assembly is driven through these keys. It is desirable that the assembly have resilience so that the buffs penetrate into the work. This is called "mush buff" in the industry. To achieve "mush buff", each buff section is interposed between spacers. However, ganged buffing wheel assemblies in which the buffs are stacked abutting the adjacent buffs without spacers interposed are within the scope of equivalents of this invention.
In accordance with the teachings of the prior art, the ganged buff sections of the above-described buffing wheel assemblies are driven through the spacers. Each spacer is provided with keyways which are engaged by the keys on the shaft. As the shaft rotates, it rotates the buff sections in engagement with the work. The spacers are composed of hard plastic or aluminum. The spacers and the buff sections are assembled on the shaft in the users plant piece by piece. After the buff sections are worn, they are removed from the spacers and the spacers are reused with a new set of buff sections.
This prior art practice has the disadvantage that it has a high labor cost. The assembly of the spacers and the buff sections on the shaft piece by piece is time consuming. Additional time is consumed in securing the buff sections to the spacers so that the buff sections are driven through the spacers.
Another practice is to drive the buff sections through disks such as the disks of the buff sections shown in Schaffner '742. The disks are provided with keyways which are engaged by the keys on the shaft. A number of buff sections may be joined together as taught by Schaffner '742, but the number must be relatively small to limit the weight which must be handled by the personnel that fabricates the buffing wheel assembly. It is necessary to protect the personnel against injury from lifting and manipulating heavy loads, not only to limit the cost of worker's compensation insurance which must be paid to injured workers, but, also, because the Occupation Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) is in the process of preparing regulations that limit the weight that the personnel may be required to manipulate to about 45 pounds.
It is an object of this invention to overcome the disadvantages and drawbacks of the prior art and to provide a ganged buffing wheel assembly formed of lightweight buff-section parts which can be readily manipulated by personnel in fabricating a buffing wheel assembly in minimal time and at minimal labor cost and without injury to the personnel and which, when spent in use, can be readily disposed of by cogeneration. It is also an object of this invention to provide a method of endowing this assembly with compactness and rigidity in the fabrication thereof from the buff section parts.